Clarissa Luxton

Clarissa joined Carpmaels & Ransford in 2018 as a trainee in the Chemistry team. Since then, she has developed extensive experience in the pharmaceutical sector, working across a broad range of subject matter spanning the clinical development process, including new chemical entities, medical uses, dosage regimens, formulations and polymorphs.

She regularly advises clients across the full patent lifecycle, from drafting and prosecution through to obtaining and defending SPCs, opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office, and litigation in multiple jurisdictions. She also has experience advising on FTO and due diligence matters.

Clarissa has been involved in numerous multi-party opposition and appeal proceedings for several blockbuster pharmaceuticals, acting in both defensive and offensive roles, as well as in national litigation relating to patents and SPCs covering marketed products. She has also recently been involved in litigation before the UPC, where she has applied her existing expertise in this new forum.

In addition to her contentious work, Clarissa has significant experience in European and global patent prosecution and in the strategic management of complex worldwide patent portfolios. She particularly enjoys developing and coordinating central prosecution strategies to bring applications efficiently through to grant.

Before joining the firm, Clarissa graduated from Balliol College, University of Oxford with a first-class degree in Chemistry, having been awarded multiple scholarships in recognition of her academic achievements. Her final-year Master’s project focussed on the use of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to investigate metabolic changes in an LN18 glioblastoma cell line, with and without a transfected isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation, following exposure to the biguanides metformin and phenformin.

Outside of work, Clarissa has a keen interest in food and travel and enjoys recreating dishes she’s had across the world in her kitchen at home (with varying degrees of success!). She also enjoys all water sports, especially slalom water-skiing.